Figma Built AI Bosses to Test Deal Memos

The toughest readers of a Figma deal memo never enter the conference room.

They are artificial versions of the company's own leaders, built by Figma's corporate-development team to pick apart a draft before the real meeting begins.

Praveer Melwani, Figma's chief financial officer, said the team created a distinct AI personality for each leader, including himself, Dylan, a member of the leadership team, and Sean, the chief revenue officer.

A team member can run an investment memo past those personalities and hear, in effect, "this is what Melwani would say," and what Dylan and Sean would say.

That rehearsal is the point. Figma's deal team has what Melwani described as a document-oriented culture, writing investment memos and analyses of possible acquisitions for senior leaders and product chiefs to read.

Melwani said those readers bring predictable concerns to a memo. There are recurring themes, similar questions, and familiar ways each leader looks at a problem.

The simulated leaders reproduce those habits. In a demonstration, the team shows the artificial critics going back and forth over a draft, flagging the passages each real executive would likely challenge.

The feedback tells the authors which parts of the document to strengthen, where to do more homework, and which common objections to answer in advance.

Corporate development is the part of the company that examines possible acquisitions and investments, and the memo is how it lays out the case.

The payoff, Melwani said, is less time spent together in the meeting. When the memo finally reaches live discussion, the team has already addressed the likely questions.

The bosses still decide. Their artificial stand-ins just make sure the first real question is a better one.